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Following the social justice workshop was a workshop based on environmental sustainability. This section was a real eye opener to things we take for granted and never think of what effect they might have on a global scale. Not only do we take more than we need to when it comes to resources such as water, food and shelter, but our products that we dearly love consume unnecessary amounts of our resources and harm the already unstable environment.

For example, the creation of a pair of jeans is really interesting. It all starts with the cotton jeans are made of. Cotton, being the most heavily pesticide-sprayed crop in the world, is picked by workers and shipped off for fabrication. To fabricate these jeans, it takes up to 6,000 litres of water or more.And how do they manage to get that nice blue color of denim? Well, they have to be dipped into many, many chemical solutions that have high levels of toxicity. Workers are exposed to these solutions and the chemicals can spill into their local waterways (yikes!). Not only are they exposed but so are you. By wearing jeans you are exposing your skin to those same chemicals that could potentially be carcinogenic (meaning they promote cancer and can increase its development.) Finally, to get to their happy home at generic big box company, they must be either be flown in or drove in by land or water. Of course any form of transportation will still release millions upon millions amounts of carbon dioxide which contribute to the ongoing climate change.



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